Are modern streetcars the future?

Due to the small backlash to TransLink's tax increases that were announced on Wednesday, the pro-LRT and pro-streetcar groups were out today promoting surface rail on CTV News as being cheaper and a fitting tribute to a past.     http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110708/bc_interurban_tram_110708/20110708/   Are modern streetcars the future? Vancouver's interurban train system — the first in Canada [...]

Vancouver considers higher-density housing plans for Cambie Street corridor – Have we given land developers a $2.5 billion subsidy?

From the 'Well I told you so department'. In Vancouver, expensive subways are built not to move people, but to subsidize land development. Readers of the Rail for the Valley blog know that this announcement was predicted and why there much hype and hoopla in the mainstream media with the recently opened Canada line metro; the [...]

The Sunday Supplement Essay

The fall out from Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts State of the City report Tuesday, has raged far & wide in the BC papers and on the blogosphere, not unexpectedly much of the debate has centered on the link between transport or transit, development or land use and city planning, residential unit design or population density. [...]

A Must Read For Regional Mayors Before They Talk Transit Funding!

Since the spring of 2008, the Light Rail Committee has circulated an E-Mail sent by American transit and transportation expert, Gerald Fox to a Victoria transit group that wants to promote LRT and TramTrain in the Capital Region. Mr. Fox easily shreds TransLink’s business case for the Evergreen Line which should forewarn transit groups and regional politicians in [...]

Metro Vancouver pushes rapid transit for Surrey, not UBC – Why Not Build Both?

It seems that that METRO Vancouver’s chief honcho wants to extend ‘rapid transit’ (read SkyTrain) in Surrey and not on Broadway. But don’t hold your breathe for any action anytime soon. The Tri-Cities have been waiting for their ‘rapid transit’ (read SkyTrain) for over two decades and were pipped at the post by Premier Campbell (and former [...]

The Failure To Understand Modern Light Rail = Public Transit Chaos

‘Zwei’ has been taken aback by the viciousness of the SkyTrain Lobby and the great lengths they have taken in discrediting the LRT, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the marketing failure of the proprietary (ICTS/ALRT/ALM/ART ) light-metro system, known in Vancouver as SkyTrain. ‘Zwei’ is also taken aback by abject refusal by many supposed [...]

The Broadway Follies Part 3 – Questions & Answers about SkyTrain

We continue with the question and answer format about Broadway’s transit issues, with a focus on SkyTrain. Vancouver is the only city in the world that continues to plan and build solely with automatic (driverless) light-metro and many people would like to know why. First, we must tackle the issue of SkyTrain and answer questions posed [...]

Debunking the SkyTrain myth – Part 3 ~ So who operates SkyTrain and why?

  Detroit’s ICTS Two previous postings  http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/debunking-the-skytrain-myth-rail-for-the-valley-answers-the-ubc-skytrain-lobby/ “ Debunking the SkyTrain myth……. “ and  http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/debunking-the-skytrain-myth-part-2/  ” Debunking the SkyTrain myth Part 2 “ has sent the SkyTrain lobby into apologetic fits. The cries of “shock and disbelief“, untrue, and cherry-picked information fill the comments postings, yet the SkyTrain lobby fail to answer one question: “Why after three decades [...]

Influences on success of light rail – From 'Future of Urban Transport: Learning from Success and Weakness: Light Rail'

The following is an excerpt from ”Future of Urban Transport: Learning from Success and Weakness: Light Rail” a study by Carmen Hass-Klau & Graham Crampton. Influences on success The available data allowed the effects of eleven different influences to be examined, using correlation and multivariate regression methods: the average light rail speed, population density 300m [...]